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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22450957">red hours</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarvixx/pseuds/sugarvixx'>sugarvixx</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>VIXX</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Blood and Violence, Crimes &amp; Criminals, Death, Gen, Gun Violence, Non-Graphic Violence, The Purge AU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 14:55:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,573</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22450957</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarvixx/pseuds/sugarvixx</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>On 21st March every year, from 7PM to 7AM. A 12 hour period where all crime is legal. Is it a nightmare or celebration? You call it, no judgement.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>red hours</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>March 21 2039 –</p><p>
  <strong>5:45 pm</strong>
</p><p><br/>
The grocery shop is somewhat packed today. Hakyeon sighs as he glanced over the long queue at the counter. It’s devastating but he expected it anyway. Everyone is going on lockdown tonight - well, maybe not everyone - and they have to make sure they have enough supply for it. Tonight. Hakyeon hates this date the most. Every year, he would feel this unsettling feeling in his gut. Fear and sadness all mixed up. It’s the Purge day, the day where those unlucky people who couldn’t afford to protect themselves, were forced to be targeted and hunted down. Sadness because he will be reminded of a few of his friends who were unable to fight thus became the victims of this cruel night. Fear because he knows he is one of these people. He hates that he have to stay up throughout the night in fear since he knows, he is alive to this day just because he is lucky. Not more than that. He is lucky no one ever bothered to break into his easily-breakable-armed house and rage-kill him. Every year on this day, he is never sure if he will get to see the light of tomorrow. Same goes for today.</p><p><br/>
“Excuse me, sir?”</p><p><br/>
Hakyeon snaps out of his trance when someone taps him on the shoulder. He immediately notices the huge gap between him and the counter, the cashier gesturing for him to move while looking annoyed. Hakyeon smiles apologetically and pushes the trolley forward.<br/>
“Sorry,”</p><p><br/>
---</p><p><br/>
Right after loading the bag of groceries in the car boot, hakyeon’s phone vibrates in his pocket signaling a text from hongbin.</p><p>From: hongbin<br/>
just reached home</p><p>he smiled to himself. Hongbin is a college student whom he shares his rented apartment with and has been staying with him for almost 3 years now. Although they have been living together for only a short period of time, they somehow clicks and comfortable around each other. Hakyeon has always reminds him to notify his whereabouts every day. Though at first hongbin complained about it, it is now a regular routine for him and he doesn’t really think too much about it anymore. Hakyeon glances at the clock and starts his car.</p><p>
  <strong>6:20 pm</strong>
</p><p>Hakyeon drove as fast as he could. He notices the road is now empty. Only a few cars were seen presumably heading towards their home too. Or maybe they are marking their hunting territory. He inevitably shivers at the thought. He thought he could be immune with the fear after his 28 years of going through the purge night. Wrong. He never will be. Out of the sudden chills, hakyeon decided to make a shortcut drive to his home. He turns into the corner of a much secluded area with hope he could reach home safely.</p><p>
  <strong>6:45 pm</strong>
</p><p>Hakyeon jolts forward when the car suddenly halts to a full stop.</p><p>“What the…” he looks up and to his horror, he sees smoke coming out from the hood of his car.</p><p>No way. Not now. Please. Oh god no.</p><p>His heart thuds faster for each step he takes to look at the hood of his car. This is not happening to me. This is so not happening to me.</p><p>Hakyeon jumps when his cell rings. He is still staring at his car hood when he answers the phone.</p><p>“Where the hell are you?!” hongbin almost yells at him.</p><p>“I’m- I –“</p><p>“hakyeon?”</p><p>“the car- the car broke down,” hakyeon manages. He feels his fingers getting cold. It’s late. He’s 15 minutes’ drive away from home. It’s late. And he is wasting his time.</p><p>“oh god. Where are you?” hakyeon hears hongbin’s voice changing from anger into pure horror and worry.</p><p>Hakyeon gulps when he realizes where he is now. Colour drains from his face. He starts to breath heavily. He’s scared. He’s in fear.</p><p>“downtown,”</p><p>He hears hongbin cursed under his breath.</p><p>“I’ll come and get you-“</p><p>“NO.” he cuts hongbin off “Don’t ever go out from that place. I’ll find my way home. Lock it down as usual,” hakyeon has had enough of the loss of his friends. He is not going</p><p>to lose hongbin too.</p><p>“But-“</p><p>“Listen to me, if you ever step out from there, I’m going to kill you myself,” he meant it. Hongbin coming to get him means he is going to walk here. The downtown. The place where most purgings were done. If he’s going to let hongbin do that, might as well he kills hongbin by his own bare hands.<br/>
When hongbin doesn’t answer, hakyeon inhales and speaks back in a softer and reassuring tone “I’ll be alright, okay. I’ll come home, I promise,”</p><p>“okay, stay safe, update me every 30 minutes” hongbin squeaks an answer before letting out a shaky breath.</p><p>“I will. I’ll text you later, I want to get the hell out from this place,” he says before he hangs up.</p><p>6:50. 10 minutes before it starts. I have to get out from here.<br/>
Hakyeon glances around, gathering his courage. He looks over at the bleeding sunset. Tonight is going to be long.</p><p><strong>6:55 pm</strong><br/>
Over the years, hakyeon has learned and mastered quite a lot of survival skills from his friends. Though most of his friends told him he doesn’t have to worry because hakyeon has been living lowkey all this time. He manages to carefully keep himself away from any possibilities of being hunted down by the Purgers. He is nice to people, he avoids being mean and is known as a very kind person. But he just wanted to learn, and listen, for one day he would be in situations he can’t avoid. For situations like this. And hakyeon knows the truth, even if he’s the kindest person on Earth, Purgers don’t really care. When he’s helpless, he is going to be killed. He has learned that the safest place would be a high place. The roof. He looks at the shop lots around him, calculating. Suddenly, he heard a faint sound of motorcycles coming from the corner. Quickly, he finds the nearest wall for him to hide. That’s his plan for tonight. Hide.<br/>
The group of motorcycles turns into the road where his car was left off. Hakyeon’s heart speeds up. He stands there trying to be as silent as he could. He hears them slow down near the car, near him.</p><p>“The car broke down,” one of them says.</p><p>“it’s still hot. He must be somewhere around here,”</p><p>“aw, a lost deer,” he hears the other guy from the group fakes a sympathy and the whole group roars into laughter.</p><p>Hakyeon can’t make up how much of them are there but all he knows that he doesn’t want to be found by them.</p><p>The laughter dies down and they turned off their motorcycle engine leaving hakyeon confused in a deafening silence.</p><p>“hey there,” hakyeon almost collapses to the ground when he sees a man standing right next to him, looking at him amused. Barrels of ammos slung across his chest. A sinister smile plastered on his face.</p><p>Shit. Out of instinct, he runs as fast as he could into the alley. Before he turns into another alley, he heard them laughing and the man saying.</p><p>“see you soon!”</p><p>He’s now a target.</p><p>
  <strong>7:00 pm</strong>
</p><p>The siren wails across the country indicating the commencement of the purge. Hakyeon is still running, his eyes are searching wildly for any spot to hide.</p><p>
  <strong>9:00 pm</strong>
</p><p>He has been hiding for two hours now. he fails to find any accessible stairs and when he saw a group of people with some sort of creepy and intimidating masks, swaying their guns like they are freaking toys already on their mission, he was forced to throw himself into the dumpster. It’s filthy but he doesn’t care. the downtown is littered with people – dead and alive. People have been going in and out the alley he is in but he is grateful his hiding spot has not been found by any of them yet. He heard a lot of awful gunshots and agony screams. he knows, this place is like a home for the homeless. That’s why people come to downtown often, because it’s loaded with their purging needs. How many people they have found and killed, he lost count. And it has only been 2 hours. He has to get moving because sooner or later they’ll find him too. He is about to send a text message to hongbin when suddenly his phone dies and he cursed under his breath.</p><p><strong>11:15 pm</strong><br/>
Slowly peeking out of the dumpster, he almost throws up when he sees the ungodly amount of blood and a few dead men and women thrown into a pile of lifeless bleeding limbs. This is sick. This is real torture. These homeless men and women were not only shot in the head, there are multiple other shots aimed everywhere across their faces, making them lost their features. some lost an arm, a leg. He can’t bear looking at the horror scene in front of him anymore. Unknowingly, a single tear run down his left cheek. He’s in fear. He’s scared. These people out here are so damn sick. It drives him crazy how they manage to kill sadistically in a night and revert back into the normal version of themselves the next morning. He can’t imagine how many times has he been walking next to or be in the same room with the purgers. Those who looks as normal as they are but has been walking around hunting humans with the intention to kill.<br/>
He has been circling the same place over and over again, running and avoiding the purgers. Although he hates to say it, but he knows he has to wait until they clear this place for him to get out from this dumpster. He flinches when he hears footsteps and laughter coming closer to where he is hiding. He closes his mouth and control his heavy breathing. Tears running down his face. He is terrified.</p><p>“He must be hiding around here,”</p><p>“Yea, I doubt he could run far,”</p><p>He knows this voice. It’s the group he met earlier. They are looking for him. He holds his breath.</p><p>“Do you guys really want to look for him? We’ve been here for hours, let’s just mo-”</p><p>A gunshot.</p><p>Hakyeon shakes violently. His vision blurry from the tears.</p><p>“Whoa. Thanks man, this lil shit has been complaining non stop my ears are about to bleed,”</p><p>These people just shot one of themselves. These heartless, demonic people.</p><p>Laughter erupts and soon Hakyeon hears shuffles of their feet, probably going to move on and continue… looking for him.</p><p>
  <strong>2:00 am</strong>
</p><p>Hakyeon has lost count on how many hours he stays in this dumpster. The situation has quieted down for a while now. Bracing himself, he peeks outside once again. Noticing there’s no sign of purgers, he slowly lifts the lid and climbs outside. He turns around and sees the gang member lying there lifelessly. His hand still clutching his rifle. Taking his chance, Hakyeon gathers the weapon and slings it across his body. Groping the body in the dark for the ammo. He notices he is still shaking. But he can’t stay here any longer. Hongbin is alone and he has lost all contact with him.</p><p>Dear God, please let me escape. Please, even if I have to kill.</p><p>Calming himself down, he starts to think of the best route to escape. He is not 100% familiar with this place but it doesn’t mean that he knows nothing. He has been racking his brain all the while he was hiding for the shortcut to his home.</p><p>He dashes from one alley to another. Trying his hardest to ignore the bloody bodies around him. The darkness of the night helps in concealing the pools of blood he stepped on.</p><p>
  <strong>3:45 am</strong>
</p><p>Hakyeon can already see the window of hongbin’s room from here. The lights are off. He just need to cross the main road and he’d be safe.</p><p>He looks around. He is sure he is alone.</p><p>Taking a deep breath, he is about to step out when a bright light shine at him.</p><p>Turning around, he sees the light comes from a motorcycle, he can barely see the face of the person on it but clearly as day, hakyeon sees a smile.</p><p>“Well, hello”</p><p>Hakyeon gulps.</p><p>-----<br/>
Hongbin is hugging himself on the floor, nervously biting his nails. He is dead worried about Hakyeon.</p><p>Please be safe, please be safe, please be safe, he audibly chants to himself when suddenly he hears gunshots. Multiple gunshots. The sound is close. Too close. He feels cold creeps up from his toes. These are the closest gunshots he have ever heard on Purge day.</p><p>He wants to peek out the window but he couldn’t. He is risking himself if he does.</p><p>Slowly, he gets on his feet and walks to the kitchen passing the dining table where a bowl of already soggy instant noodles which he prepared for hakyeon this evening is still sitting there untouched. He pulls open the drawer where they keep their safety guns and takes one. He should be preparing for the worst. He realizes his hands are cold.</p><p>Suddenly, he heard knockings on the door.</p><p>That must be Hakyeon. Without thinking, Hongbin unlocked the door.</p><p>“Hakyeon, I’m so worried”</p><p>At that time, Hakyeon’s message crossed his mind. ‘Only open the door when I knock using our secret knock,’</p><p>Shit.</p><p>
  <strong>4:00 am</strong>
</p><p>Hakyeon climbs the stairs of his apartment complex breathing heavily. The sound of gunshots still ringing in his ears. He can’t remember how he did it but he managed to escape. Though he is sure he shot someone, he doesn’t want to remember anything about it. He reaches his floor and to his horror, he sees the door of his unit wide open.</p><p>“Hongbin!” he runs, he pleads that nothing happened to hongbin, he feels tears in his eyes.</p><p>“Oh my god, no, no, no, please,”</p><p>He reaches the door and sees a body lying in a pool of his own blood. Getting inside, he kicks the door close and locks it. Taking out his rifle, he walks slowly towards the body. He is still not sure if it’s hongbin or not. Getting closer, he takes a look on his face.</p><p>“Come closer and I’ll shoot!”</p><p>Hakyeon looks up and sees Hongbin. Face stained with tears, the gun in his hand, aiming shakily at him.</p><p>“Hongbin, Hongbin it’s me, Hakyeon!”</p><p>Hongbin lets go of his gun and falls down to his knees. Hakyeon, quickly tosses his rifle away, runs towards Hongbin and pulls him in a hug. Hakyeon can feel Hongbin trembles in his arms.</p><p>“I’m sorry, I’m sorry I’m late,” he whispers as Hongbin sobs.</p><p>“I… I killed…” Hongbin tries to speak but Hakyeon hushes him and continue rocking him to calm him down.</p><p>“It’s okay, it’s okay”</p><p>---</p><p>Hakyeon can’t remember when he fell asleep. He opens his eyes to the rays of sunshine making their way through the curtain. Hongbin is still sleeping in his arms. He glances at the unknown body in their home making a mental note to call The Collectors later.</p><p>He looks at the wall clock.</p><p>
  <strong>7:01 am.</strong>
</p><p>They survived another year.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>ps: this is a 3-chapter work but the chapters are not connected! you can read each chapter as a solo work :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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